Judgement Calls

A wise man once instructed that when one is teaching horses a new concept, they will often have a sort of break down right before they have a break through. They can become frustrated, panicky and otherwise unmanageable for a brief period—then suddenly, they change, and they "get it".

Refer to my previous post for the break down portion of my own understanding.

The situation has evened out. I nearly wrote that it had gotten "better"—but in light of what I just read and am currently marinating in from Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, the word "better" is not necessarily applicable.

Tolle relates on page 196 the story of a man who experienced events that we would term as fortunate and unfortunate, but the man's response was always "maybe". Such as "Wow, you won a car in the lottery, isn't that great?"

"Maybe..."

Then he got hit by a drunk driver and wound up in the hospital—terrible, isn't it?

"Maybe..."

Or maybe not, given what happened next in the story (while in hospital, his house was destroyed in a landslide that would have killed him had he been home).

Then Tolle relates the story about Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti who said his secret is "I don't mind what happens."

We would read that as "I don't care", indicating a lack of interest in a callous way. But now, I read it as not minding—not mentally judging what happens, rather, accepting what IS as it is without judgement. It is being in alignment internally with whatever happens. As Tolle points out, this does not mean we can't take action toward manifesting change; rather,

When the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of Life itself.

(Tolle, A New Earth, p. 199)

Too often, we judge situations as good or bad. We speak often of "blessings in disguise"—is that what they are? Or is it that we misjudged the situation as bad, but after witnessing how it connected to later events that had a more beneficial (again, judging) outcome, we see the benefit of the supposedly "bad" situation?

Is a blessing in disguise merely a misjudged situation?

So the estate has been open a year and a half longer than it "should" have. Bad?

Maybe...

And the house caught fire. Terrible! Right?

Maybe...

Maybe not.

Look at gas prices. The world protests, people are upset at how high they have gotten. It's just awful how expensive it has become to drive a car, hasn't it?

Or has it?

One report says that the percentage of traffic accidents has dropped.

People are becoming, out of necessity, more environmentally aware. They are trading in the SUVs for smaller cars; manufacturers are putting more effort into developing automobiles that can run on alternative energy sources that won't deplete our natural resources or harm the environment.

We are staying home with our families, playing in the back yard, as opposed to flying the kids to a theme park for detached entertainment.

We carpool more or even better, we take public transportation or bike/walk to work.

We are rethinking our priorities.

Not to misjudge the situation, but... doesn't this seem like a positive thing? Perhaps this is the Universe's way of balancing out the imbalances.